See it here: https://flic.kr/p/2awh9zs
See it here: https://flic.kr/p/PwFyRK
See it here: https://flic.kr/p/29s4g3s
See it here: http://ift.tt/2tAMVkn
So, As this was a discovered chrysalis, and I am not a lepidopterist, I cannot properly identify this as the chrysalis of any specific type. …
That little ball of spiky stuff is the remains of the caterpillar skin. I will watch this and see if the adult ever emerges. With luck, I may catch some action in a little while.
See it here: http://flic.kr/p/VtReyb
The other day, I mentioned that Macros were everywhere. And I used a piece of moss that I cut out of the planter that the Plumeria was in, in the back yard.
Well. … I placed that moss in a little plastic container, and added water. “Why?” You ask. Well, I do not really know. … I like Moss. I was hoping to see it get really green. I just like all life and did not want t throw it away. … I would put it back where I got it, but I had not done that yet. …
So, as Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise. Surprise.” When I looked, this morning there was a little hairy surprise in the moss. … So I shot this image. … When you look at the moth under normal light, it is much closer to the color of the moist ground around the moss. It is only because of the reflectivity of the moth, and the transparency of the water on the surrounding dirt/moss combination that channels the light away from the camera, that the moth stands out so brightly in this image.
Anyway. … The serendipity of unforseen consequences oftentimes adds an opportunity. … Take advantage of the opportunities.
Some days require keeping your nose to the grindstone, working your bottom off, and a couple pots of coffee to keep the pups primed.
This is the opposite of that kind of day. The kids are in school, most of the tourists are between here and there. It is a day of reflection, listening to the birds by the bay, the gentle lapping of the wavelets against the pilings. … Tomorrow is another day, but today, I am comfortable.
Pimelometopon pulchrum: The California sheepshead ranges from Monterey Bay to the Gulf of California with the largest populations in the lower half of the range, south of Point Conception. It is usually caught at the edges of kelp beds and rocky shores where its main diet consists of mollusks, lobsters, crabs, and small fishes. It is not related to the sheepshead of the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. And, even more important, it is mightily tasty!
In this study of a Garden Spider’s web in the evening sun, I love the way the web refracts the sunlight. Look at that little cone of colors, to the right of the spider, it is a soft focused part of the web, but the way the light is caught on the tiny droplets of the web. The tiny drops are the sticky trap part of the web.
This image is beautiful in its small version, but at twenty inches by thirty inches, it is an eye catching jewel.
★★★ View HD Video on YouTube ★★★
Purchase this image.
View large size image.
We noticed this nest, just under the eaves on the front of the house. It must have been there for a while, and not really bothered anyone, but now we know, they are there, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting, child, dog, or even the gardener.
If you look closely during the video, you can see some easily observable actions that these wasps do as part of their social life. At the top center of the nest is a wasp that is going along the sides of a single paper cell, enlarging the cell with a paper mâché from its mouth. Below center, you can see two wasps grooming each other. Just above center right, you can see a whole line of larva whose faces look like the caterpillar in “A Bugs Life.” And if you watch very closely, you can see a wasp doing the wasp version of the wiggle dance.
★★★ View HD Video on YouTube ★★★
You should watch the video on YouTube. When you watch, make sure you see it in HD, and then expand the video to fit your screen.
Ok, it is not a true headline. … This headline is more like the stories we are hearing from the mouths of lawyers about the oil spill, those stories are also, not true.
Living in California, we only have a few images captured by photographers, showing us tiny slices of the enormity of the problem the gulf is facing. The Deepwater Horizon accident, and the ensuing catastrophe, has been covered every day on the news, and I swear that I know less of the truth today, than I did two months ago.
Think Globally, and act locally. … If. … If only.
Perhaps that should be added to the Golden Rule. … Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Think Globally, and act locally.
A few of my friends, and our dog partners, visited Fiesta Island. 😉 All of us had a very nice time in a beautiful section of San Diego.
My dog, Gypsy, and I go there quite often. We have a wonderful time there.
This is a link to a few more Gypsy images
I wanted to invite all of my friends that could make it, down to fiesta island with their dogs so we could do a giant dog shoot. (I will set a date for that soon)
But, June 26, I will be shooting pets for Citibank customers at …
Citibank
2240 Otay Lakes Road
Chula Vista, CA 91915-1003
Phone: 619-216-1251
You might want to check out those kinds of images as well. …
Furry Un-Dogs
Dogs … Really, dogs. 😉
Scales, Feathers, Amphibians, Other Pets
Pets and People, together 🙂
Come on down! 😉
This is an interesting image to me. … It evokes loneliness, and yet it is a colony of birds as well.
They are protected here in their lonely home on the lake. Land based predators cannot reach them through the shallows.
For me, sitting on the shore, they are unreachable, except by my long lens.
This little section of beach is part of The San Dieguito Wetlands Project in the San Dieguito River Valley. The project will take 150 acres of coastal wetlands back in time, to when life flourished in the river valley.
It is also where horses can run in the water, and where I caught grunion with my family, as a boy. It is a place of people, kites, volleyball, and dogs. You would like it there. I do.
Tomorrow I will be … In a few years the earth will … “In the year 2525, if man is still alive” …
This image illustrates all transition for me, because it is so easy to see and understand because it happens in such a short time, we can see it progress. It is an image of a frog, or a tadpole? It is really a froglet. Froglets are usually seen with much shorter tails.
Everything has a lifetime to live, and we change throughout that life, we only call it living in mankind, not metamorphosis as we do in frogs, because we do not lose a tail, or grow legs. … Or do we? Our most visual metamorphosis takes place unseen, in the wombs of our mothers, where we lose our tails, and gain four limbs.
Most humans try to separate themselves from animals, I don’t. I revel in the flow of time, and I look forward to the continued evolution of myself, all life known and unknown, and the universe.
San Diego is a beautiful city as most people see it. But, it has many nooks and crannies of beauty seen by very few.
Fiesta island, is one of those beautiful places that are hidden from a casual view. The island is ringed by a road that is frequented by cyclists in their drive for healthful exercise. Between the road and the interior of most of the island, stand berms, artificial ridges of heaped earth that hides the islands center from the casual view of those just driving around the island. You have to stop your car, get out, and walk past the berms to the magic of a Southern California spring.
I walk there with my dog quite often. It is a very dog friendly place for off leash walking. In this image, my dog Gypsy is having a very good day.
You have to hurry down there to see it, because it is our spring, and it does not last long.
Spring in the desert of Southern California is full of beautiful things.
This particular Friday evening, was no exception when I went for a ride with a friend to the desert. Warm winds moved the branches, and hair, but did not chill the body. It was evening, and the sun was very low, creating long shadows, and a little later, as the sun dropped behind the mountains, no shadows at all.
I have several favorite images of the evening, but I always come back to this image of Jenivive looking at this large, and beautiful Ocotillo.
Spring is here. Go outside and stand, very quietly, for ten minutes, listening. I just heard, what must be hundreds of, birds singing in every direction my attention was focused. What a wonderful sound.
This image is from the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. In the image is a little red headed House Finch for you to compare colors. The flowers are that color green, and beautiful.
This is in the cactus gardens, and they have separated planted areas of these kinds of flowering plants. Each of the areas has flowers of one color. Blues, greens, yellows. … Of them all, the blues and the greens caught my eyes most.
One day a friend, Margaret, called. She wanted to take her dogs for a walk on Coronado Islands Dog beach.
This is an image from that day. … Two happy dogs walking, and playing on the beach.
You can see; it was a beautiful day.
I am getting ready to head out to the desert this week and shoot whatever the spring has brought to the Southern California deserts, usually aiming at the new growth.
Ahhh But! I am also a very opportunistic photographer. This image was from a previous spring jaunt into the barren land with a friend who also possesses the eyes of an eagle. He spotted this group of Big Horn Sheep from quite a distance, pointed them out to me, like a hunter siccing a dog onto a prey.
So I started walking towards these sheep, at an angle, moving closer towards them every step, but not directly towards them. That angled approach kept them from being spooked, and hightailing it for higher ground. In the end, this is the best I could do.
Notice the flowers, and the green all around the sheep. The flowers were the target of the day, the sheep was the true bonus, and best images of the day.
